GENOA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2019) The Kurdish National Council in Syria, an umbrella group of most of the Kurdish parties in the country, welcomes the temporary ceasefire in northern Syrian, agreed by the United States and Turkey, the vice president of the council, Abdul Hakim Bashar, told Sputnik, adding that there is still an array of unresolved problems.
Earlier in the day, the United States and Turkey reached an agreement to implement a 120-hour ceasefire in northeast Syria to allow the withdrawal of the Kurdish People's Protection Units' (YPG) forces. All military operations under Turkey's Peace Spring will be paused and the operation will be halted entirely on completion of the withdrawal.
"The ceasefire is such great news which will help all parties to avoid the death of innocent people, relocation and destruction of the region. I hope that the ceasefire will be on an ongoing basis in accordance with the Turkish-American consensus. However, unanswered questions remain," Hakim Bashar said.
According to him, it is unclear what will happen after the ceasefire expires. The questions are related to the future control over local civilian populations, the fate of municipalities belonging to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and other issues.
"What kind of military protection the 'safe zone' will have, and who will manage it at the civilian level � these are not clear," he added.
